Carbon nanotube reinforced polymer composites - A state of the art

Because of their high mechanical strength, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are being considered as nanoscale fibres to enhance the performance of polymer composite materials. Novel CNT-based composites have been fabricated using different methods, expecting that the resulting composites would possess enhanced or completely new set of physical properties due to the addition of CNTs. However, the physics of interactions between CNT and its surrounding matrix material in such nano-composites has yet to be elucidated and methods for determining the parameters controlling interfacial characteristics such as interfacial shear stress, is still challenging. An improvement of the physical properties of polymer nanocomposites, based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), is addicted to a good dispersion and strong interactions between the matrix and the filler.